


The one without waffles

by JanuaryCafe



Series: It's Classified [3]
Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
Genre: Alternate Universe, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-15
Updated: 2015-07-15
Packaged: 2018-04-09 10:33:21
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,887
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4345175
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JanuaryCafe/pseuds/JanuaryCafe
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In which there is a shootout, a question, Steve's personality causes some work problems for Danny, and absolutely no waffles.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The one without waffles

It was a nice view, Danny mused. Steve in the morning was always nice. He was wearing blue boxers that hung low on his hips, and the hem of one of Danny’s college t-shirts just barely brushed the shorts. The shirt, which was too big on Danny, was just a little too tight on Steve. Nicely tight, Danny thought, watching the muscles in Steve’s back move as he plated food at the kitchen counter. Danny leaned back in his seat at the table and appreciated the whole view. Steve looked good in Danny’s clothes. He looked better out of them. Something to consider for after breakfast.

Steve turned around and grinned at Danny, who was distracted immediately by the light scruff still on his face. Steve hadn’t shaved yet. Danny had a thing for Steve with a bit of stubble. Well, in the mornings at least. He had to shave it off for work; they weren’t animals and professionalism was still alive so long as Danny was around. Steve leaned down to kiss Danny, and Danny responded happily. He left Danny’s plate and his own and went back to the counter, and Danny watched him go with an appreciative glance at the well-fitting boxers on his fit backside.

The contentment he felt faded fast and brutally when he tore his eyes away from Steve. “What the hell is this?” Danny stared down at what looked like boiled fish and raw greens. But he was wrong; it couldn’t be that, because it was _waffle Sunday_ , and Steve wouldn’t do that to him. He wouldn’t take away the crispy, golden waffles with the syrup and the butter and give him dead fish and things dug up out of the ground. He wouldn’t. Steve cared about him. Danny knew he did.

“Breakfast,” Steve replied, glancing over his shoulder from where he was at the counter.

“No,” Danny said.

“No?”

“Yes. No, it is not breakfast. I don’t know what it is.” Danny eyed the plate distrustfully. “Definitely not food. And absolutely not waffles, which is what we eat on Sunday.”

“Not this morning. Today it’s poached salmon and steamed—”

“ _Waffles_ , Steven. It’s waffle Sunday.” When Steve appeared unmoved by Danny’s logic, he added, “What would Grace do if she was here, huh?” Weep tears of distress with Danny, probably.

“She would thank her Uncle Steve for helping lower her Uncle Danno’s cholesterol.” Steve turned around and made his way back to the table, a pot of fresh coffee in one hand and two mugs in the other. He served them both coffee and took a seat next to Danny where his own plate of inedibles was waiting for him.

“Blasphemy.” Danny took a gulp of coffee to steady his nerves.

“It’s true. She was doing a health project for school and wanted both of our cholesterol levels.”

“So?” He had excellent cholesterol. Danny poked at the fish with his fork. It wasn’t even fried a little bit. There was no sauce. What was _wrong_ with Steve?

“So, yours was a little high.”

“What?” Danny looked up and frowned. “No it’s not, it’s…” He broke off. With a flash of realization, he began swearing mentally, long and colorfully. The CIA. His false medical records. Shit. “I’m pretty sure that must be an error,” Danny said, “I’ll call my doctor today and make sure.”

“I already did that. Grace was concerned, so I called Dr. Oberman and she said that the number was correct.”

Danny was going to strangle someone at headquarters. Maybe several someones. Steve had that look on his face, the one that meant no arguing, no pleading, no bargaining in the world was going to change his mind. Worse, it was about Danny’s health, which mean Steve would be like a bulldog with a chew toy: not going to let go until he got what he wanted. Still, Danny had to try, for the waffles.

“Babe, I still think she might have been mistaken. Even if she wasn’t, I don’t think waffle Sunday should be discontinued. We could make those vegan ones, the ones that Grace made that one time? Those were good. I couldn’t even tell.”

“There was still a lot of butter and syrup, Danno. This,” he gestured at the plate in front of him, “Will not raise your cholesterol and will actually help lower it.” He finished like he thought that was a good argument for Danny. Danny found himself questioning the sanity of making Steve one of the people who had access to his medical records; but he had wanted Steve to have that and be an emergency contact in the event that something happened to Danny. He didn't want Matt, or god forbid Gracie, to be the one to identify him if he got disemboweled in the line of duty. But at the moment, all of that was secondary to the lack of waffles and the unpleasant fishy odor emanating from his breakfast.

“No.” Danny leaned back from the table and just barely stopped himself from crossing his arms petulantly. “I’m not eating it.”

“You’re hungry.”

“Not _that_ hungry.”

Steve shrugged. “Fine.” He took a bite of his own breakfast, and the bastard even looked like he was enjoying it. He reached out to grab the coffee pot, and Danny quickly got distracted by the way his – _Danny’s_ – t-shirt stretched around his biceps. Steve adjusted his legs under the table and one of his feet brushed against Danny’s. Danny watched the way Steve’s throat worked when he ate, and felt himself swallow hard. Steve’s foot shifted and brushed along Danny’s ankle, sending a tingle through him at the contact.

Then it hit him. “You son of a bitch.”

“What?” Steve glanced up at him, his face stubbly and his neck long and the t-shirt leaving very little to the imagination and his ankles knocking against Danny’s.

“You _son of a bitch_ ,” Danny said again, “You’re seducing me into healthy eating.” He pointed an accusing finger at Steve’s chest. He deliberately directed his thoughts away from how nice a chest it was, and how good it would feel to put his hands on it. That would be playing right into Steve’s hands. His big, broad hands that fit nicely around Danny’s hips and over the back of his neck and threaded through Danny’s fingers.

“Danno—”

“Don’t ‘Danno’ me, you bastard. You think I’ll get distracted by those shorts and you in my shirt and your face and, and… No.”

“I think,” Steve said, as though Danny hadn’t spoken, “I’ll go back upstairs after we eat. Maybe get back into bed.” He took another bite of his breakfast, nearly halfway through.

Danny swallowed. He liked lazy Sundays with Steve _a lot_. And going back to bed usually meant Danny got very, very lucky. The shower afterward, too. “Sounds good,” he said, derailed.

“Unless,” Steve continued, “It’s going to take you a long time to eat your food. Then I’ll probably go for a swim and maybe head in to do some paperwork at the office.”

Danny scowled. “You’ve never done paperwork in your life.” According to Kono, Chin did Steve’s paperwork just to avoid doing the additional paperwork for the late filing, which had happened more than once when Steve was left to his own devices.

When Steve continued to eat at a steady pace with no other response, Danny swore again and looked back at his breakfast. “Damn it.” He picked up his fork.

<><><><><> 

“It wasn’t that bad. You like salmon,” Steve said in what he probably thought was a reasonable tone of voice.

“Shut up, Steve,” Danny snapped. He dug his heels sharply into the small of Steve’s back, encouraging him to move.

But Steve stayed where he was, braced on his elbows above Danny. He leaned down and kissed him gently. Danny bit his lip, but Steve still wouldn’t move. “I think you’ll feel better once you get used to eating healthier food more often,” Steve continued.

Danny groaned and arched his body against Steve’s. It earned him a hitched breath and a little roll of the hips, but that was it. When Steve opened his mouth to keep talking, Danny shoved at his shoulders and flipped him onto his back. He settled back over Steve’s hips and slid back down, taking his lip between his teeth at the feeling. He rocked himself down onto Steve, and the words Steve had been about to say were lost in a moan. Danny grinned when he felt Steve’s hands settle on his hipbones and grip tightly when he started thrusting in time with Danny.

For a while, it was great. Danny had Steve underneath him and in him, and he could do what he liked with the man. He enjoyed each appreciative and pleasured noise and instance of his own name from Steve’s mouth, and made sure to let Steve know how much more fun he was having without the added discussion on healthy living. But near the home stretch, Danny could see that same look in Steve’s eye, even as the jerk was about to fall over the edge. He clapped a hand over Steve’s mouth to stop to speech and clenched down hard. Steve’s eyes slammed shut and his hips jerked into Danny’s as he came. Danny kept his hand in place as he finished himself off and followed Steve down.

Later, still sleepy and sated and wrapped up in Steve, Danny felt lips skimming his brow, the side of his head, his neck. Steve bit down gently and worried the skin between his teeth until Danny was sure there would be a mark. He felt Steve kiss the spot when he was done and move on to do another.

“Babe, I say this because I want us to have a lot more time together.”

Steve hummed against Danny’s skin, licking at his newest mark on Danny’s clavicle.

“If you ever try to feed me that shit again, I’m burning down your kitchen.”

Steve huffed a laugh into the hollow of Danny’s throat and brought his head up to meet his eye. “Fine, no more plain fish and greens, but we eat more healthy meals. You can help pick them out.” Steve leaned forward to kiss him. “I want you around for a long time, too.”

Danny wavered in his conviction, and he felt himself losing ground in the face of the affection Steve was emanating. He looked back into Steve’s eyes and damned the day he decided to stop at that stupid pineapple-themed corner store. “Fine. But I get veto power. And anything green is covered in something a lot tastier.” Danny steeled himself for an argument.

“Move in with me.”

Danny hesitated, thrown. “What?”

Steve shifted until he was sitting and pulled Danny up with him. He took Danny’s hands and held them tight, his expression serious. “I want you to move in with me.”

The first thought in his head was an enthusiastic ‘yes,’ but it was quickly eclipsed by the problem of Steve being around all the time. While that was enough to have Danny feeling giddy enough that he was sure he looked like a sap, it also meant that it would be twice the lying and twice as hard to keep things from Steve. He wanted it very badly, to be closer to Steve. But the thought of having to mislead him more than he already did made him ill.

He met Steve’s gaze.

“Move in,” Steve said again, firm and sure for a man who had already asked twice without an answer, “Move in with me, Danny.”

<><><><><> 

“So what did you say?” Nick asked when he ducked back behind the metal shipping crate. He let the empty clip drop from his gun and snapped another into place. He grinned at Danny. “You going to let him make an honest man out of you?”

Danny flipped him off before peeking around the crate and getting off a shot that winged one of the snipers pinning them down. He quickly shot the woman again as she tried to pull herself to safety. “What do you think I said? I have no will power around him. Of course I said yes.” He ducked back just in time to avoid a shot by another sniper.

“Congratulations to the happy couple.” Nick raised an imaginary glass to Danny and nearly got his hand blown off. He didn’t even say thank you when Danny crouched up a bit and took out the guy who had made the shot.

“No, not congratulations. This is a nightmare.”

“I thought you really liked this guy.”

“I do, that’s the fucking problem.” Danny waited until Nick took down the second sniper, catching the guy right beneath his eye. “He trusts me, and I trust him, and I’m lying to him so much already. How do I explain how a supposed cop from Jersey has to leave town for days at a time, sometimes on no notice and in the middle of the night?”

“What do you tell him now?” Nick asked, wiping at the slow bleed at his hairline, the blood staining his ginger hair.

“He either thinks I’m with Gracie, or that I visit family in Jersey if it’s a longer trip.” Danny flapped a hand. “He thinks I’m really close to my folks.”

“And apparently that you’re made of money if you can afford that many plane tickets on that short of notice,” Nick said, clearly not impressed with Danny’s cover story.

“I say Mattie pays for them happily so he doesn’t have to go home and have Ma make a big deal over him and Grace.”

“Now that I’d buy.”

“But that won’t fly when I get a phone call at an unholy hour and he’s right next to me in bed.” Danny exhaled in frustration and shot two more guys who tried to round the crate. He turned back around to find Nick grinning lecherously at him. When Danny frowned at him, Nick just shrugged.

“Hey, I can imagine things. You’re good-looking, he probably is too.”

“Nick, focus.”

“All I’m saying is that you haven’t even introduced me to him yet. All I have is a first name, like he’s a cocktail waiter.”

“And I appreciate you not prying for more information, from me or anywhere else.”

“That restraint will only last so long, buddy.”

“Just let me figure out what I’m doing here before I have to invent lies about you, too.”

“I don’t understand why you don’t just have Steve read in. From what you’ve said, the guy can probably keep a secret.” Nick began rifling through his bag, no doubt to find the grenades.

Danny eyed him, struck by how much Steve would probably get along with Nick. The thought was a bit unnerving. “While I’d love that, Jameson won’t go for it.”

“Why not?”

Danny grimaced. Early on in their relationship, Danny had been unceremoniously kidnapped and thrown onto a barge. By the time he had been able to free himself and get home, Steve had brewed up a special kind of chaos. He had been told the official story, which was that Danny was busy with a case. Steve being Steve didn’t leave well enough alone and found indicators that that was not the whole story.

He had made calls, bashed in doors, and generally made a ruckus trying to figure out where Danny had gone. Granted, two weeks without a call would have freaked Danny the hell out, too. Steve had almost cracked Danny’s cover at HPD, and had nearly inadvertently alerted certain individuals to information that they should not have about Danny and his activities. After that, Jameson had asked Danny point blank whether Steve would behave better or worse if in the future he was alerted when Danny was kidnapped by terrorists and was being carted off for torture and death. Danny had hesitated, trying to imagine Steve sitting back calmly and letting others try keep Danny from getting murdered. Jameson had kicked him out of her office, and that had been that.

“Jameson doesn’t think it’s a good idea,” Danny told Nick finally, “She thinks he won’t leave well enough alone.”

“You said he has a job where he has to keep secrets, right? Just tell him that’s a two way street,” Nick said. He made a triumphant sound when he found his frag grenades.

“Steve…tends to fixate.”

“You mean if it's you, he won't let it go,” Nick said slyly.

“He’s fine telling someone else that ‘it’s classified’ and ‘need to know,’ but he doesn’t do well getting told that himself.”

Nick nodded. “You think he’d flip out the first time an arms dealer had you strapped to an explosive or something.”

“Maybe, maybe not. Jameson doesn’t really want to find out.”

“Your boy seems high maintenance.”

“Not really. Not often.” Danny thought back to just last week when Steve had followed him and harassed him until he had shown him what was in his brown bag lunch he was taking to work. Steve, Danny had found out, had to know everything or else he lost his mind just a little bit. Even his pretense at not needing to know was short-lived and unconvincing.

Nick made a disbelieving noise and lobbed two grenades over the crate. He wrapped an arm around Danny and blocked him with his body against the crate. The explosion was loud in the enclosed warehouse, and Danny’s ears were ringing afterward. “All I’m saying,” Nick shouted as they leaped out from behind the crate to deal with the stragglers, “is that if you can’t trust him with this, what the hell are you even doing with him?”

Danny stabbed a guy in the chest, ripped it back out, and threw the knife at a woman charging him down. “I love him,” he shouted back, and froze. He hadn’t even said that to Steve yet. He’d known it for a while, maybe a month or two, but he didn’t like that he had said it to Nick first.

“You’re making me jealous of this guy,” Nick said, cheeky. He shot the last man and surveyed the destruction around them. “So, this job could have gone better.”

Danny made a sound of agreement. Jameson would be pissed.

<><><><><> 

“Are you both _trying_ to piss me off?” Jameson sat back against the edge of her desk and pinched the bridge of her nose.

Danny glanced at Nick, who sat in the chair next to him, uncharacteristically quiet. Jameson was one of the few people who could reign Nick in and make him genuinely nervous. “No, Ma’am. But there was important intel we didn’t have, and everything kind of went pear-shaped from there. It’s in the report.”

“I’ve read it. It doesn’t help your case as much as I’d like.” She eyed them both. “However, considering the circumstances, it could have been worse. And you did achieve your objective, albeit through means this agency does not normally endorse. It’s a bit mess to clean up.”

“But it could have been worse,” Danny agreed.

Jameson sighed. “Get out of my office. Arnold should have new files for you both on your next assignment.”

Nick nodded and made his way out, but Danny hesitated and closed the door instead. “Ma’am? Can I have a moment?”

Jameson rounded her desk and took a seat, pulling Danny’s report toward her and frowning. “Now is not a great time, Williams.”

“I know. But I don’t have another time to do this.” He took a breath. “I want Steve to be read in.”

“No.”

Trying not to be discouraged by the abruptness of her answer, Danny explained, “He asked me to move in with him. I’m going to. I can’t keep lying to him; he’s smart and tenacious and he’ll figure it out anyway. I’d rather be the one to tell him.”

“Williams, you’re not on solid ground with this agency at the moment, and McGarrett is on worse.”

“This agency encourages us to date Americans, and people with high clearance are especially approved of. Steve is both of those things,” he argued.

“He’s also rash, relentless, and doesn’t know when to stop digging when it comes to you.”

“That’s not tr—”

“It’s absolutely the truth. You weren’t there to see it, but that man will not sit by if you’re in danger. If he’s read in, he’ll know when you’re in danger. He won’t take ‘let us handle it’ as an answer, and he’ll start taking prisoners to find out more.”

“I’ll talk to him. His job is dangerous too. He disappeared for two weeks on an assignment from the Navy once, and I handled that fine.”

Jameson raised an eyebrow at him. “Did you? You pulled the files on the mission and tracked him to make sure he was okay.”

“I had the clearance,” Danny said, trying not to sound defensive.

“Yes, but Steve doesn’t. He can’t know precisely where you go, what you do, who you speak with, or the specific danger you’re in. If something happens, he’ll get an agent at his door to tell him when it’s all over. Do you think he can handle that?”

“I’d like to see how it goes. I think…I think he’ll be fine.”

“Well, I don’t.”

Danny gritted his teeth. “Ma’am, please. I’ll lose him if I keep lying to him.”

Jameson watched him for a moment, dubious and assessing at the same time. “Give it another six months.”

“Give what?”

“If you’re still together in six months, and he has handled things well, he can be read in.”

“That’s too long.” Danny shook his head. Steve would be onto him way before that.

“Five months.”

“Three.”

“Fine. But he needs to control himself.”

“Of course, he will.” Danny thought for a moment. “But I’ll need a more solid cover. I can’t be a detective and be disappearing at odd hours for days at a time.”

Jameson nodded and leaned back in her chair, hands steepled. “I have something in mind. It’s similar to what we did with Meka and his parents for a time. You’ll branch out on your own because an old acquaintance is starting a private security firm. You’ll have odd hours and sometimes be required to leave town. It can be your new job, or be a side job along with your HPD cover.”

That sounded like it could work, at least for the next three months. “I’d also like to be able to share my actual medical records with him.”

“Not yet. Some of them allude to the jobs you’ve done and the places you’ve gone. McGarrett’s military experience would alert him to that.”

“Then please don’t give me things like high cholesterol. I can’t do any more steamed fish,” Danny all but pleaded.

Jameson’s mouth quirked in suppressed amusement. “I’ll have a word with the people writing them.”

“Thank you.”

“Anything else, Agent Williams?”

“No, Ma’am.”

“Then leave me alone. I have a lot of paperwork, and so do you.”

Danny nodded and turned to leave. When he was safely away from Jameson, he let himself grin widely. He was putting his 'doctor' on speaker with Steve first thing when he got home, and waffle Sunday was coming back _immediately_.


End file.
